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In linguistics, 'fillers' are sounds or words that are spoken to fill up gaps in utterances. Different languages have different characteristic filler sounds; in English, the most common filler sounds are "uh" "er" and "um".

Contents

Filler words in different languages

See also

External links

Filler words in different languages

★ In Italian, ''e'' is one of the most common fillers

★ In Mandarin Chinese speakers often say ''zhege zhege zhege'' ("this this this")

★ In Japanese, ''e'' or ''to'' or some combination ''e...to'' are often used; also the filler word ''nani'' ("what") is common

★ In Spanish, fillers are called ''muletillas''; the most common are ''este'' ("this") and ''o sea'' ("I mean"). [1]

★ In French, ''euh'' is most common; other words used as fillers include ''quoi'' ("what"), ''bah'' (or ''ben''), ''tu vois'' ("you see"), and ''eh bien'' (roughly "well", as in "well, I'm not sure")

★ In Russian, fillers are called ''слова-паразиты'' (vermin words); the most common are "Э-э" (eh), "это" (this), "того" (that), "ну" (well), "значит" (it means), "как его" (what's it [called]), "типа" (like).

★ In Danish, 'Øh' is one of the most common fillers.

★ In Urdu, 'yani' (meaning..), 'falan falan' (this and that; blah blah), 'umm' and 'aaa' are common fillers.
A common pitfall among language learners is using fillers from their native tongue. For example, "''Quiero una'' umm.... ''quesadilla''". While less of a shibboleth, knowing the placeholder names (sometimes called kadigans) of a language (e.g. the equivalent of "thingie") can also be useful to attain fluency, such as the French "truc": ''Je cherche le truc qu'on utilise pour ouvrir une boîte'' ("I'm looking for the thingie that you use to open up a can").

See also

★ Interjection

★ Discourse marker

★ Speech disfluencies

External links

★ Why do people say "um" and "er" when hesitating in their speech?, ''New Scientist'', May 6 1995